wfn.org | Latest shootings evoke painful memories for Jonesboro residents

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

April 22, 1999 News media contact: Thomas S. McAnally*(615)
742-5470*Nashville, Tenn. (10-21-71) {219}

A UMNS News Feature
By Jane Dennis*

The deadly shooting rampage at a Littleton, Colo., high school April 20
served as a painful reminder to residents of Jonesboro, Ark.

Barely a year ago, in March 1998, the Jonesboro community was reeling from
its own school shooting, which left four students and one teacher dead and
10 others wounded. Two boys, ages 11 and 13, were apprehended at Westside
Middle School, armed with an arsenal of stolen ammunition and weapons.
Andrew Golden and Mitchell Johnson, both students at the school, were later
charged as juveniles and found guilty of the crimes. They will remain
incarcerated until age 21.

Rev. Fred Haustein, senior pastor of First United Methodist Church in
Jonesboro, said an overwhelming sense of shock is the first reaction to such
a tragedy. "We just can't believe it's happened to us ... and, in our case,
from our very own children. It takes a while to even realize the magnitude
of that fact."

The people of Littleton need to know that people all over the world are
concerned and supporting them with prayer, Haustein said. "They are not
alone. I would encourage them to look to each other and to their faith to
help find  the resources to make it through these dark days."

The intense and immediate scrutiny of the world via the onslaught of media
following the shootings proved a difficult hurdle for Jonesboro to overcome,
Haustein said.

"One thing that took us a while to realize was, while this was a local event
we took so personally, it was not just ours -- it belonged to the nation and
world," the pastor said. "We then realized there were indeed people all
across the world dealing with many of the same things."

Sharing with others the tremendous grief and pain helped ease the hurt and
brought the community closer. 

"By joining together we found our resources to be very strong," Haustein
said. "It grew us closer as a community, across different lines -- racial
lines,  denominational lines, across school board and school jurisdiction
lines. We  found those distinctions did not mean anything any more. ... We
were drawn  together in ways we had never been before."

Healing in Jonesboro happened because churches, families, schools and
government pulled together, said Rev. Michael Sutton, pastor of St. Paul
United Methodist Church, Jonesboro. "Everyone worked together, and we just
had to realize that no one individual or group can say it's someone else's
problem."

The role of churches and the faith community must not be overlooked, Sutton
stressed, "because values, morals and truth, love and forgiveness, support
and compassion are the real things in life."

As far as advice, Haustein said he would like residents of Littleton to know
"the problem is not just theirs -- it's ours, and it's going to take a while
for our nation to decide what we're going to learn from this."

The answers do not come easy, he admitted. But one thing is certain in
Haustein's view: "The continuation of tragedy that is exercising itself on
American society in our school yards is one of the foremost problems we need
to be dealing with as a nation. It is my hope and prayer that together we're
going to be able to find an answer that works soon."

Arkansas Area Bishop Janice Riggle Huie expressed compassion and sympathy
for all the families affected by the Colorado shooting. Calling the events
"senseless" and "tragic," like so many others involving youth in recent
years, she said it's time to "ask what needs to change in order for this to
be  prevented? It's time we deal with the core issues, not with the
symptoms."

Society must look at "the larger cultural issues" that push people, even
children, to act out feelings in such violent ways, Huie said.

"We need to look at the personal responsibility issues of teaching,
especially children, how to cope with aggression and anger and what are
peaceable,  nonviolent ways to deal with their own feelings of hurt or
alienation or anger," she added.

"Fundamentally, I think this is a spiritual issue. I mean, think of the
hopelessness that drives a 17- and an 18-year-old to shoot all these people
and then kill themselves," she said. "I feel confident there's an emptiness,
not only in them but probably in their environment. And that's an emptiness
I believe can finally be filled only by God."

A common theme of the school shootings, she remarked, is "the  shooters have
lost the sense of hope and confidence in God, in families, in  their
schools, in the adults who work with them. Those are spiritual matters, and
metal detectors and more guards and throwing kids in jail and tossing away
the key only deals with the symptoms, not the core issues.

"As people who believe in the grace, hope and love of Jesus," the bishop
said, "we have something to offer."
#  #  #

*Dennis is editor of the Arkansas United Methodist.

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